TOURING CAR MASTERS
Eastern Creek, NSW 3-5 September 2010
Pre Race Preparation
Mark (Birdman) had much to do prior to racing at Eastern Creek, with two cars to prep up, plus the added work associated with taking one of the nascars to the circuit for the heritage laps.
JB, Shaz and Timmy - the old nascar crew
together again !!. |
1969 – WesTrac Camaro – Andrew Miedecke
Mark changed the front springs and shocker lengths; changed the front stub axles, steering arms, front wheel offset, front ride height, modifying the drag link, changed castor, camber, akerman, bump and steer settings. All the above changes were put in place in the hope the front end grip will improve thus, delivering better mid corner speed. Also changed were the rear shock length and valving, rear spring design and race, rear ride height, with added extra shocks to control diff wind up. These changes designed to control a diff wind up issue and therefore improve drive and roll control.
1970 – Whiteline Transport Camaro – Bobby Middleton
A total redesign of the front end was done, including spring type and location, shock type and location, wishbone mounting points, wishbone pivots changed from bush to bearing. These changes necessary as car was previously relatively standard road car in these areas. T.C.M. rules allow a degree of freedom in these areas in order to make cars more suitable for racing.
Changes to all wheel alignment settings and ride heights done with added extra shock to diff housing to improve drive. The carby was changed and manifold spacer to improve performance.
With the modifications complete, the team loaded up the cars and spares on Tuesday in readiness for an early morning departure the next day.
Bob and Mark headed off in the b-double transporter on Wednesday – Bob steering a demonstrator Actross supplied by Mercedes Benz Commercial Vehicles. Needless to say the driver and passenger refinements were state of the art and a comfortable trip was the result. Nigel Benson travelled in his transporter with Bob and had on board the Whiteline Racing Nascar.
Thursday was a wet and miserable day, but the boys managed to unload the cars and set up our pit for the weekend.
Timmy Bush and John Beeton (JB) headed up from Yass in ‘the volvo’ buying the groceries for the team on the way – but not without complaints. They rang me in the middle of Coles to say that next time I supplied a list, all the cold stuff needed to be on the list together, fruit and veg together etc. speed reading and scrolling down the list was not an option. I have undertaken to review the list to their standard prior to Bathurst !! Having said that, on unpacking everything, must say they did an excellent job !! They bought Allens snakes though, and anyone who is a connoisseur of snakes will know that the ‘natural’ brand is a must !!
I flew in Friday night – not the best of flights – very rough conditions but waiting at the airport were Timmy and JB and needless to say by the time I arrived at our accommodation, Panthers Club, I had a face ache from laughing so much. Part of the reason being, neither of them could quite remember where the car was parked, so the challenges had already began !! Needless to say we found the car and with the help of their inboard gps which they had named ‘Sharon’ we found the club. We had a couple of drinks at the club, then off to bed for a 6am start to head to the track.
Andrew arrived in from Pt MacQuarrie on Friday, where the team had access to four practice sessions plus a couple of runs in the nascar.
Conditions were all over the shop – Andrew in the WesTrac, Lubrimaxx 1969 Camaro did all four of the sessions. The first the conditions were ½ wet and ½ dry, on slicks so the car was pretty ‘skaty’ and didn’t tell us a lot. By the second session conditions were wetter, but the tyres had been changed to wets and a wet set up, so a reasonable session was had. By the third, conditions were more a less dry, car was performing okay, but off the pace – some shocker changes were made and tyres changed, but the session was not deemed beneficial. By the fourth, the results had improved finding 1.5 seconds, which meant we were now a few tenths off where we needed to be.
In the meantime, Bob the Builder completed three of the sessions in the immaculate bright red, Whiteline Racing No. 85 camaro, the first with the track ½ dry and ½ wet not a lot could be assessed. The second session he sat out, saving the new wets that had been fitted. By the third, Bobby was getting used to the car and the front end changes were showing very positive results. In the fourth session it was a continual progression towards a better handling car to drive.
The nascar always had people around it |
In between both Andrew and Bob drew a lot of attention by completing laps in the Whiteline Racing nascar. The noise and its presence creating massive interest at the track. They have a sound uniquely their own. In the last session with Andrew at the wheel, the gearbox failed, which was replaced by the crew, with excellent assistance from Ben who works in Ron Missen’s workshop.
Saturday, unfortunately conditions wet. Scheduled was a practice, qualifying session and race.
Practice took place at 9.30 a.m. with Andrew in the WesTrac/Lubrimaxx camaro completing 8 x laps with his quickest on the 2nd, placing him third fastest at this stage, O’Brien and Bowe 1 and 2 respectively. The session was not without excitement with Andrew spinning twice, but no damage sustained.
In the meantime, the apparent improvement for The Builder was evident, completing four laps, the best on lap 3 and was now in the middle of the field in 14th, out of 29 cars which was a massive positive move forward. Bobby’s session was not without incident also, having a spin on the opening lap in the wet, combination of cold tyres and hot to trot the cause !!
Pre qualifying was a tense time, whilst the drivers and the team determined whether to run wets or dries for the session. Every team was busy dialing up the weather on their lap tops.
Both cars starting out on dries and desperate to get out first to get a couple of laps in before what was sure to be a big downpour. Bobby came in mid session and swapped to wets because he just couldn’t get any grip, whilst Andrew persevered, coming in towards the end of the session to adjust air pressures to a lower setting, but this was too late into the session and the result would put Andrew back into 10th and Bobby into 14th. The gamble really didn’t pay off for Andrew, but post qualifying was not that phased by the outcome and confident of a good first race result.
First three off the grid were Bowe, Stack and Bullas. Great result for Bernie Stack a fellow South Aussie in a Porsche.
Talking with Mark post qualifying he made a comment very true about this weekend so far, “it is like a lottery, there is no reward for effort” and he’s right, because like he said if it was wet all the time, you’d set for wet, but this will it or won’t it be a wet track for the race just creates so much indecision. Definitely a hard weekend for the boys.
Race 1 over 10 laps got under way some hour later than scheduled due to a serious accident in a previous event. Rain was threatening and in fact did impact on the race midway through. A warm up lap took place, but then a delayed start board was shown due to the Ross Almond Porsche bonnet flying up covering his windscreen, so the field was brought to a stop whilst Ross exited the track. In the meantime, the field was given another warm up lap before the start.
The start was average for Andrew in the WesTrac camaro, he reported that the car had power, lost power, then regained power but the result was he bogged down and lost several positions, in the meantime Bobby in the Whiteline Racing Camaro had a good start.
In the early stages of the race, Stack, Bowe, Bullas and Richards enjoyed a great tussle up front, and by the 2nd lap the field had settled down to Bowe, Richards, Bullas, Tilley and Tander – Andrew was 11th. With each lap Andrew would continue to make up ground with a little bit of ‘argy bargy’ to end up in 5th behind Bowe, Richards, Bullas and Tilley. With two laps to go, Andrew had developed a blue haze from the back of the car, which was causing us some concern but would not affect his final position. In the meantime mid race, Bobby had a massive moment in sand and gravel but luckily did not get bogged and would ultimately finish in 22nd only to have this taken away from him, when CAMS officials deemed the car 7 kilos underweight. Mark and the team were puzzled about this given it weighed correctly in Adelaide prior to its departure, but they did find it had used a considerable amount of fuel so the tank was a lot lighter than usual.
Bobby commented the car just had so much push it was just a handful to control and said that until the modifications are done to the rear it will be hard to progress any further.
Andrew ran his newly completed Capri in
the heritage hot laps. |
There were a number of challenges for the team with regard to Andrew’s WesTrac Camaro, they were chasing an oil leak from the back of the engine, some body damage and had wheels and brakes off – Whilst most of the other garage doors were down, the boys were hard at it. Nigel Benson from Adelaide was burning the mid night oil also, replacing a gearbox which let go with one lap to go in the race. All pretty buggered after a long, hard day we all hit the sack not even worrying about tea.
Up early again Sunday, with two races for the day. The first at 12.06 and over 10 x laps.
Absolute mayhem would ensue, when Steve Mason stalled on the start, the field was going everywhere, with Andrew getting clear and so too Bob but not without a dramatic slide heading for the wall which he managed to correct just in time !! Sad thing for Steve is, his son Cameron failed to miss, crashing into Dad ! The safety car remained on the circuit until the start of the fifth lap, at which time Andrew was in fifth behind Stack, Bullas, Tander and Richards. At the start Stack was swamped by the higher powered group 1 cars with Andrew remaining in fifth as Bowe had now joined the fray in 2nd behind Bullas. Bobby in the meantime was travelling to the rear of the field pegging off a couple of entrants each lap.
The top six cars enjoyed some close and exciting racing with Andrew getting up into fourth on the 6th lap, behind Bullas, Bowe and Richards. By the seventh, Richards and Bullas were dicing for second spot behind Bowe, whilst Andrew was maintaining his fourth spot, when on the final lap, Andrew again with blue smoke bellowing out of the car and with what was thought to be a failed clutch, limped over the line to take the flag mid field, only to be imposed with a 60 second penalty for not maintaining correct position behind Richards when the safety car left the circuit on lap 5 !! So from 4th Andrew was now 28th !!!! Bob managed to end up in 22nd out of the field of 31 cars after what was a horrific start to the race.
Proof in the pudding, broken input shaft to gearbox on Andrew’s Camaro. |
To make matters worse, on return to the pit, it in fact wasn’t the clutch, but the input shaft on the gear box had snapped. This was a repair that could not be fixed at the track. The bellowing blue smoke was a split gasket on the sump. Given Andrew’s standings on the championship, the decision was made to exercise the fact he is cross entered in the 85 1970 Camaro also. So for the second race of the day he would drive the red camaro. The team got busy, setting the seat etc to suit Andrew’s body type. The other draw back was he would be forced to start from position 29.
Race 3 was held at 2.53 pm and over 10 laps. A clean start was had, with Bullas leading the pack hotly pursued by Bowe. Meantime, Andrew had managed to make up four spots. By the end of the 2nd lap, it was Bowe, Richards and Tilley with Andrew now in 21st. Richards was yet to serve a pit lane drive through as a result of being shown the black flag for jumping the start. From laps 3 – 8, the first five positions remained a constant, until Richards finally came down pit lane to serve his penalty, in the meantime, Andrew had managed to get up in 11th and was still on the charge albeit with some damage along the way as a result of a coming together with the Ross Almond Porsche. By the end of the race, had managed to get up into 9th, with Bowe, Tander and Tilley 1 -3. Again, however, the bad luck for the weekend would continue, with Andrew being disqualified for the Camaro being underweight. There is a considerable weight difference between Bob and Andrew and given the short time to prepare Bob’s Camaro for Andrew, not enough weight tolerance was allowed for.
Certainly not the best of weekends for the team and considerable work to be done prior to Bathurst.
To the left, JB and Timmy busy crewing at
Eastern Creek |
In between races, Bobby took the No. 85 Nascar out for the heritage laps and was circulating in pretty
quick lap times, given it was a ‘demonstration’. As I eluded to earlier, the spectator interest was huge and there is a definite possibility that they may appear in a racing capacity in 2011. Andrew also took advantage of the heritage hot laps, to run his Capri. This is a project that he and Ron Missen have been working on over a long period of time and was keen to give her a run.
After this round Andrew now sits in eighth in the standings, but it is important to note, that Andrew has already dropped the compulsory round from his tally. All teams are required to drop a round prior to season end, with this reflected after the final round.
Both cars have body damage and with Andrew’s the gearbox and engine will need to be removed and repaired.
The race weekend in Bathurst will be spread over the four days, with our cars hitting the circuit on the Thursday with practice and qualifying.
I’ll be in touch soon.
Kind regards,
Shaz Middleton
Touring Car Masters Media Release
5 September 2010
Stack stuns as Bowe Blitzes at MCM
Headlining at the annual Muscle Car Masters Father’s Day event, the Touring Car Masters presented by Autobarn was full of surprises, drama and thrilling race action for round four at Eastern Creek Raceway (NSW), this weekend.
John Bowe was the man of the moment with pole and three straight race wins to reclaim the overall championship lead in the #18 WesTrac Cat / Wilson Security Mustang.
However, it was Bernie Stack’s against-the-odds performance that took fans and fellow competitors by surprise as he took fifth place outright for the weekend.
In a wet and frantic qualifying session Bowe clinched his fourth successive pole position of the season, but it was the giant toppling performance of Bernie Stack that had everyone talking after he put the Gawler Storage Porsche 911 RS on the front row.
Further down the field another Group 2 runner, Cameron Tilley made the most of the wet to notably qualify sixth outright in the Valiant Pacer, outpacing his brother Brad’s Ford Falcon XY GT in seventh.
Topping the Group 3 battle, Karanfilovski’s TIFS Warehousing Alfa Romeo GTAM was ahead of Phillip Showers’ Ford Escort and the returning Datsun 510 of Cameron Mason.
RACE ONE
For the fourth consecutive round Bowe started from pole, but it was all eyes on Stack and, with a dry track, the Porsche looked likely to be swallowed up off the start line.
Bowe bogged down the start and dropped to sixth while Stack bolted off the line. As Bowe recovered and began scrapping with Jim Richards and Gavin Bullas, the trio closed in on the little silver bullet.
Stack valiantly held onto the race lead for most of the opening lap before conceding just metres before the start / finish line.
The larger cars quickly asserted their dominance at the front of the field and the battle for the lead intensified with the top seven Group 1 contenders all jostling for position.
Bowe assumed the lead and in the process set a new lap record (1:43.5154min) on lap two.
As the laps wore on, the seven-car stoush broke into several smaller battles with Bowe and Richards disappearing into the distance, while Bullas and Brad Tilley traded blows in third and fourth, Leanne Tander had the advantage over Andrew Miedecke closely followed by Steve Mason.
Richards appeared to have the faster car, but was unable to get by the very defensive driving of Bowe who greeted the chequered flag after the ten laps.
Bullas held off Tilley, but a sticking gear problem for Tander released Miedecke and dropped her back into the clutches of Steve Mason who pressured her all the way to the finish line.
Photo by James Smith |
The first of the Group 2 cars, Stack crossed the line in eighth to secure pole in race two’s top-eight reverse grid. The Tilleys Automotive Pacer was second in Group 2 followed by Gary O’Brien who scored his first top-three result after a difficult start to the season.
Running on his home track, Tony Karanfilovski’s Alfa Romeo GTAM was in great form, mixing among a number of Group 2 cars to finish impressively inside the top 20 outright and take the under 2-litre / Group 3 win unchallenged.
RACE TWO
On pole alongside Steve Mason, Stack launched off the start line with Tander’s Wilson Security / McGrath Foundation XA Falcon in hot pursuit.
However, Mason stalled on the start line forcing the cars behind to take evasive action and as the field darted around the stricken Hercules Engines Camaro, Cameron Mason in the #7 Datsun was unable to avoid a collision with his father’s car.
Charging from the rear of the grid, Mason Jnr clipped the Camaro and put his Datsun 510 out of the event. Leaving a lot of debris on the start line, the safety car was called out on lap one.
Stack led till lap five when the safety car pulled off and released the field. The #36 Porsche was immediately swamped by a pack of bigger Group 1 machines and dropped to seventh.
As Bowe and Bullas battled it out at the front of the field with Richards, Miedecke and Brad Tilley in hot pursuit, Tander began dropping down the order with accelerator cable issues.
Stack resumed sixth spot, while Cameron Tilley in the Pacer was impressively working the back of Graham Alexander’s Corio Auto Parts HT Monaro for seventh, but was a long way down the road from Stack.
As Bowe, Bullas and Richards passed the chequered flag, Miedecke stopped just metres from finish line and eventually limped to the line in 29th place, elevating Brad Tilley, Stack, and Cameron Tilley to fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
In a drag race between the McAlister Ford Mustang and the Stillwell Motorsport Mustang, it was Ian McAlister ahead by two tenths of a second at the finish line to round out the top three for Group 2.
Mixing with the Group 2 runners, Karanfilovski once again finished inside the Top 20 for his second race win of the weekend.
RACE THREE
On pole alongside Bullas for race three, Bowe made his third slow race start for the weekend and Bullas’ Rain City Mustang sprinted off to an early lead.
Bowe was not prepared to relinquish his stranglehold on the weekend and, along with Richards pushed past Bullas.
Photo by James Smith |
Richards looked threatening for the race win, but was shown a black flag for a jump start and forced into pit lane to serve a drive through penalty which ended his challenge. Out of contention, the champion driver still responded by setting the fastest lap of the race before eventually capping 12th place.
In the hunt for second place it was Bullas, Tilley and Tander battling it out while Bowe stretched an unassailable lead.
Tander was on a mission and muscled her way into second place and managed to keep her XA ahead of Tilley’s XY throughout the closing laps, while Bullas settled into fourth.
At the front of the field, Bowe was in a league of his own and powered to the chequered flag almost 20 seconds clear of Tander, Tilley and Bullas.
Miedecke, whose car was unable to be repaired in time for race three, swapped into team owner Bob Middleton’s Camaro and delivered the other drive of the race as he charged from the rear of the grid to ninth.
However, after the race Miedecke was excluded from the results and awarded no points because the car was underweight due to the weight difference between drivers Middleton and Miedecke.
In sixth place, hot on the heels of Steve Mason, Cameron Tilley topped Group 2 in the final race, ahead of Stack and another third place for Gary O’Brien.
In Group 3, not having it all his own way, Karanfilovski had to settle for second as Showers got the upper hand in a dogfight for the race three win.
OVERALL
Bowe’s comprehensive victory returned him the top of the championship standings. The two-time Bathurst winner now enjoys a well-deserved 19-point advantage over Bullas, while previous series leader Richards drops to third place.
Bullas and Brad Tilley wrapped up second and third for the second consecutive round.
Photo by GraphiDAK. |
Rebounding from a tough weekend in Darwin, Stack’s dominant performance at Eastern Creek has stretched his Group 2 championship lead ahead of McAlister, while second place for Cameron Tilley has allowed him to start to reel in Stillwell in the overall standings. In a huge boost for the Bendigo-based squad, Gary O’Brien scored his first podium of the season since making his return to the category at Clipsal.
Tony Karanfilovski stretched his lead over Phillip Showers, while Cameron Mason scored his first points for the 2010 season before colliding with his dad, Steve’s car on Father’s Day.
The Touring Car Masters presented by Autobarn now ramps up for the most iconic race meeting of the year at Mount Panorama, Bathurst (NSW) for round five of the 2010 championship on 7-10 October.
JOHN BOWE
“It’s been a dream weekend. The car’s been fast since we got here.
“I always seem to go well at Eastern Creek. I think it’s because I do so much with V8 Race here - hundreds and hundreds of laps around this circuit.
“The car was fantastic. It really suited the track, but I think Jim could just as easily have won it.
“I had to drive very defensively in race one to keep him behind me and I think he had my measure in race three except he got a drive through for a jump start. I know how he feels; having got a penalty for jumping the start in the last two years running I was over-cautious and lost out at the start of every race, this weekend.”
BERNIE STACK
“My main goal this weekend was to keep Ian
McAlister behind me and to give Cameron Tilley a good run. To get ahead of Cameron was a bonus.
“The wet weather in qualifying to get on the front row really set us up, and then finishing eighth to start from pole in the reverse grid gave us the advantage to keep Cameron behind us.
“I couldn’t keep up with Cameron in race three, but I finished in front of everyone else in Group 2 which was enough to extend the lead in the championship.
“I’m happy we got our results back on track after a tough round at Darwin. Bathurst will be tough, but we just have to get as much as we can out of it and hold on until we get to the smaller tracks for the rest of the year.”
TONY KARANFILOVSKI
“Thursday testing really paid off; we got the car set up really well for the track.
“Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed not to win all three races - I got caught up in the stalled grid in the last race. There were cars going everywhere trying to avoid a collision and I lost a lot of time.
“I had a bit of understeer in last race, too, and just couldn’t keep Phil behind me.
“We had a lot of friends in and out of the pits all weekend and mates watching on and supporting us, so it’s good result especially after last year’s wipeout.
“Now, I’m really looking forward to Bathurst.”
Photo by GraphiDAK
Photo by James Smith |
